Talk:A. Little: Devious/@comment-30564209-20180226230728
I'm not an idiot. I knew as I wrote my review that you wouldn't take kindly to it. And there's no reason why you should, no one likes criticism, be it constructive or not. But I kept at it, and actually posted it, in the spirit of honesty. I pride myself in being honest in my reviews, and when I'm extra douchey in them, I usually attribute it to something extraneous to the show, like me being moody for whatever reason. I am not a hater, and I am not a kiss-ass either, and my reviews don't follow some fort of formula like Ben's - not criticizing his method, I just mean that I don't try to force "good" and "bad" into them. I don't sugarcoat stuff, and I don't dress it up either. But all through ALD, as I have admitted already, I have overlooked stuff. I understand now that that's not acceptable, because as you write a show, you try to cater to your audience as much as possible, unless you work on OUaT. You guys counted on my reviews to help shape your series - in fact, since I was the only one reading so far, that responsibility fell entirely on my shoulders and I took it lightly, in the interest of not upsetting you with things that seemed pretty minor to me at the time. I addressed the key aspects of the stories and left the irrelevant comedic stuff out. Never did I expect that stuff to turn into something major. But I came on too harsh, and I assume my share of the blame, both for how the series turned out in the end, and for your reaction. I'm sorry for upsetting you. It's happened before with my reviews, but honestly, I often attributed that to you guys being overly touchy. Especially you, Jo, you take everything far too personally - heck, you get upset if we criticize your favorite characters on other TV shows, as if they reflect on you somehow. It doesn't set you apart from the stans we often criticize. That being said, I'd like to address something else I majorly screwed the pooch on in my review. Joe has admitted to being the mind behind everything having to do with Shaniqua being the killer, an idea I wrongly attributed to Jo. It just... seemed to fit your style of humor better. It was wrong of me to presume you were at blame for a plot point I was so strongly against. It was prejudiced, even. I have worked up close and personal with you and I know how creative you are as a storyteller and how good a writer you are, I didn't at all mean to imply Joe is a better writer than you. It wasn't fair, and I profusely apologize. You two are both terrific writers - that could have gone without saying, because I have pretty much read everything you've put out, but I feel like I should indeed say it. However, Jo, what you're doing right now is not acceptable. It just isn't. I shouldn't rub salt on the wound, I know this probably won't help much, but again, for the sake of honesty, this is just ridiculous. You always overreact to everything, and we always let you get away with it. I realize I have no moral ground to judge you for it, because a few years ago I was like that myself, always losing my temper over every little thing regarding wikia. But from my current standpoint, I do acknowledge how silly and sad that was. You need help, Jo. You only act out this way because you're sad about other things and that rubs off on us. We're not out to get you, to make you feel worse. Talk to us, let us help you. Stop overreacting so much, start sleeping on the matters, reach out to us. It's only better for you. Because right now you are sad and angry, neither of which is good, and there's no real reason for you to be sad or angry. You know that I have given you and Joe glowing reviews, not long ago either. You have done fantastic work, the kind I've even admittedly gotten jealous of. But you're losing your cool over one bad review - all-encompassing, granted, but still just the one. And you're deleting the series from the wiki, as if all that hard work was for nothing. It wasn't, ok? You love it. Joe loves it. As he said, you two wrote this series for yourselves first, for us second, and that's more than okay. It's not an actual TV show, it's your hobby, your personal project, you are at full liberty to write what you like, and I'm sorry I made you feel otherwise by suggesting all that stuff about the pilots and the pitching. I made myself out to be way more of a dick than I intended to. Sometimes the true intent gets lost in writing. I was mostly sad at the idea of Ben and Josh not reading this show which might tarnish the DB universe, but it was just as wrong of me to presume that they wouldn't read, as much as it was to presume who came up with what. I can't and shouldn't speak for anyone else, and I take it all back. But this, shutting us out, deleting your hard work and Joe's, is not the way to fix this problem. I expect you to take what I said as constructive criticism, the kind that helps you do better next time; I don't expect you to take it as me tearing you down, because I never strive for that. I'm not your enemy, Jo, nor your rival. We are not in writing competitions against each other, which I probably may have led you to believe with the comparisons to my work. That review just... it came out all sorts of wrong, didn't it? I'm sorry. Not for the points I made, just the way in which I presented them. Don't beat yourself up over this. Take pride in what you do, always, and when things don't work out like you planned, take them as lessons learned. And don't overreact so much to things. I know I said I can't speak for anyone else, but I believe I can in this case: none of us is out to hurt you.